Shattered Planes Archives (Seasons 4 & 5)
Beyond => Records of Time => Topic started by: Queen Bright on September 30, 2010, 03:36:50 AM
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Appearing within a silver bubble of time, the group of three, headed by Asura, appeared within what looked like your common library. Except this one was quite different, as it looked like it extended on forever, the books upon the gold-bound wrought iron shelves extended on forever in what looked like endless rows upon rows. The floor was carpeted in a soft black velvet, and the walls a striking silver that glistened in the pure white-flamed candles that gave the area its only light source, a brilliant blazing light that seemed to light up the whole realm, casting no shadows anywhere.
"Welcome to the Records of Time!" Asura exclaimed, quite the little show-off at this point. It was her domain after all. Well part of it. The one area where the seal lay was only the outer domain, what most 'mortals,' would see when they tried to go inside of time. But the Records of Time, that was a whole different story. THIS was the true domain of time, the one place where all history and those that live as part of existence, were recorded. The very timelines themselves, imprinted into bound books, that would take the length of time its self to read.
Hikaru who stood just a little ways behind Asura, stood, staring in awe at the archives before her. Why every magic book in existence must be here, and even then some! Revelation magic? Genesis? Even the great magic types of her kind would probably be dwarfed by the secrets held in such a place. Suddenly, Hikaru didn't seem so powerful as she normally claimed.
Asura continued to be a tour guide as she led them to a specific shelf, near the very ends of the realm. Although, because she was time, the usual years it would take to get to the 'ends,' would merely take a few minutes, as if it wasn't noticed. "In this place, timelines are books, existence is recorded, and events, objects, people, everything, all of it can be found here."
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"Woah! Holy shit! Damn!" Gaserlake said in amazement as he looked around the infinite number of books. "This is one hell of an archive!"
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"That's because it's all of time recorded, stupid." Hikaru rolled her eyes at Gaserlake's comment as she followed Asura. Though she was in awe herself, she was still a magic user, and was not THAT surprised. "Wonder if I could find the type of spell I need here..." She mumbled to herself aloud. "This many books? Probably even things I don't know of. Things to even alter and break blood contracts." Hikaru glanced back out of the corner of her eyes at Gaserlake as she said that, just to see his reaction for her own amusement.
Asura suddenly stopped abruptly, "Please try not to touch anything, even you Miss Hikaru. Nothing before or after your time. Things you already know, sure. But nothing like say... on your enemies." She gave a look at the two of them before turning back around and continuing on.
Eventually, after several more minutes of walking, and mumbling to herself, Asura stopped at a bookcase that seemed to be floating off the floor. This one was different from the others. One, it was glowing, and two, it had only a few books here and there upon its shelves. Not stacks upon stacks of infinite books. Just several ones in random places.
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Gaserlake rolled his eyes at Hikaru's comment. When she mentioned the blood contract he just smiled. When Asura warned not to touch, he took the opportunity as a response to Hikaru's mention of the blood contract. "Yeah, Hikaru!" he mocked. "Don't touch anything you don't know! So don't look into how to break blood contracts, Hikaru!"
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Without another word, Hikaru turned away from the bookcase and swept her arm outward, levitating the books out of one shelf and flinging them forward towards Gaserlake. And given that this was a perpetual source of books, that was a helluva a lot of books to fall under. "If you don't SHUT UP, I'll purposefully find the damn books on the Special Forces, each and every last one of them, multiply them and give them out to charity!"
"I heard none of it!" Asura quietly grinned, quite amused by the current scene.
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When the books fell on Gaserlake, he shoved them away. If there was a mountain of books, it wouldn't be on him. I would be next to him. He smiled mischievously. "Yeah. You do that, and they will hunt you down and I would NOT be able to stop them. Plus, I would look up on magic, souls, and spirits, and how to deal with them. Hell, I might even join the ASF against you in that case."
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"Oh?" Hikaru laughed at him. "By then it'd be pointless to kill me, as the whole damn dimensional plane would know. Now, now, can't kill all of existence."
"Stop, stop, stop!" Asura tapped her staff to the ground, finally speaking up against the argument. "I didn't bring you here so you could look up one another and fight about it! I brought you here to explain." Asura then held up her hand, and immediately a book appeared in it, the same book she had read back in Hell. Opening the book, she showed the pages outward to the two of them. "This is that so called history book, actually it's only one event. The book recording The Plex Tournament, because its recording the event I was able to read it." Asura threw the book outward, she didn't care if either of them caught it or not, it was their choice if they wanted a closer look.
Hikaru avoided the book entirely. "I already know of the tournament from what you said. But what did you mean back when you said you couldn't explain?"
"I'm getting there." Asura tapped her staff and two books fell hovering near the two, one for each, one book was black with gold writing, the other was pink with white writing. "Each of these books are an example of a timeline book, a person, their personal timeline. They will be of someone you know. This is an example of a normal timeline book."
Without a word, Hikaru took the pink one, somehow drawn to it as she opened it up to skim the pages. "Hikari... Should have known."
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"Ah, well. At least we get to kill one of the Sage Three," Gaserlake sneered.
Gaserlake opened the book and read some. "Hikaru, I've got bloody Kylexx." Out of everyone, it had to be that girl that tried to seduce him. "She tried to seduce me, and here I am, having a random book out of EVERYONE I know, it has to be this seductive woman." He laughed. "It seems like she and I are made for each other, and time has to shove it in my face."
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"Which brings us to why we're here!" Asura interrupted the conversation before Hikaru could reply with some nasty comeback about Gaserlake and Kylexx, which by the expression on her face you could tell she was just about to say. "Most likely you cannot kill her."
Dropping her comment, Hikaru looked point blankly at Asura. "He can't?"
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This hesitated him and made him think. "And, why?" Gaserlake asked as he closed the book.
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"Because." Asura walked up to the shelf and selected one of the books that was creating the glow of the shelf. Turning around with it, she held the book in her hands, the cover showing. It was a red and gold book with a black mid-bind. On the front in gold writing was inscribed the name, 'Hikaru Tyris.' Asura held the book gently between her hands as she continued, "Fate has no bearing, just as...." Asura released the book, letting it hover in the air, open. "Time has no bearing."
"It's blank..." Hikaru focused on the book, its many faded white pages not having one word upon them. "Entirely blank..."
"And so is K2323s, as well as Kai's, and if my theory stands correct, your children. I cannot read them, nor their timelines. Before? It was because K2323 himself was there, so he allowed access to his timeline. To find Kai and you? I could trace, but not read. I can read things around them, events surrounding, and piece together their history by the history of everything else. But in each of your timelines, to read it direct? I cannot. No force can. Ask your brother who now holds Fate, if he can foretell you. He cannot."
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"So, it's possible for her to get killed, yet for some reason, something has to happen to keep it from happening?" Gaserlake looked down. "I realize it happens to me. The only reason why I died was because of myself, and even then, I was brought back to life."
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"Back when my powers were first sealed by Kai and K2323," Asura went on, " When I found out who did it, I also found out quite fast that I could not read them. I thought that it was just because half of my powers were now locked. But as I can now see, even with Time unsealed, I still cannot read them. What's more. I cannot change them either. I cannot edit, change, or manipulate their personal Time in any way. And if I try to change the events around them to indirectly change their Time, then changes quickly fall apart around them till the original course the Timeline was taking is revealed. "
"Hmph, Just as well," Hikaru gave a skeptic laugh. Her eyes then focused more upon her own book, her gaze staring holes into the blank white pages. Finally she looked up. "But why us? Not just this, but all of it." Hikaru closed Hikari's book and dropped it. "Tragedies no child should suffer, paths against one another, powers that no other magic user can match. And STILL we continue to increase in power, to magic soon immeasurable by anyone in existence. But why? Why are we alone, in the middle of every happening, even at times we try not to be? You just said fate has no bearing on us, so it can't be that we were some cliche group of chosen ones. Is it because of the Genesis King? Our indirect inheritance. Or that we were the offspring uniting two warring sage races? Which is it?!"
"It..." Asura paused, holding her hands up to close Hikaru's book and place it back on the shelf. "It is neither." She looked to Hikaru, then to Gaserlake, then to the both of them. "The ones in this shelf, as far as I know. They should have never existed." At Hikaru's silence, Asura went on. "And if what he says is correct..." Asura tapped her staff to the ground and a book appeared near Gaserlake. "There may be more than what's here."
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The book was brown, and looked ancient, very ancient. He opened the book up to a random page. Surprise filled his face. He flipped to several more pages. He flipped to every page in the book. "Nothing's in here," he said as he turned the book around for the two to see.
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Asura nodded as if it was no surprise as Hikaru merely glared at the book before looking back at Asura. Tapping her staff to the ground again, Asura continued as the book disappeared and appeared on the shelf. "Why these few are like this?" Asura held out a hand, gesturing to the bookcase behind her. "Not even Time can tell. However, I do have a theory." She looked at the both of them. "In your own words, tell me. What does it really mean to exist? And just what is existence really?"
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"Well..." Gaserlake replied while he thought on how to answer this question. "It's just... to be. To have a form. To just be a thing. Existence is... well... without it, nothing would be here. Existence something and everything."
Right after Gaserlake finished his sentence, he suddenly froze in an instant. He was in suspended animation. Nothing of was moving, even down to the subatomic level and beyond that. At the same time, a business man came around a corner of a book shelf towards the three. He was wearing a suit, a tie, and a briefcase. "Or maybe it's something to have some fun with," he grinned as he said as if it was to add on to Gaserlake's sentence.
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"You're the bastard that saw through my spells!" Hikaru shouted, automatically recognizing the man from before.
"Well, well, well," Asura interrupted Hikaru as she mused about the interruption from the person. "I was starting to wonder when you'd show up."
"You know him?"
Asura shook her head as she leaned upon her staff, "No. But I know when people are outside my power of control. And I knew if I brought ones to this place, that that person would eventually show up. And what do you know? Here is is."
"We've met," Hikaru replied, "Partially, and without speaking to one another." Her eyes followed the man's every move as she spoke. "Anyways, I may not like that idiot, but what the hell did you do to him?" Hikaru pointed at Gaserlake as she directed her question to the new being. "I'm semi-responsible for him until we get back to his damn planet. So whatever spell you used. Drop it."
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The man grinned. "I see you still have a temper, Ms. Tyris. I know what I'm doing. He's quite safe. As for you, Ms. Tempress, you have quite a nice place."
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"Temper?" Hikaru asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "You'll be on the receiving end of that temper if you EVER dare mock me again. Now what the hell did you do to him, and why?!"
"Yes it is a nice place, isn't it?" Asura merely questioned. "But the question is, what are you doing here?"
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He laughed. "Oh, yes. That part. That wasn't really meant to mock you. Now, I want to talk about Gaserlake, and well, talking about him in front of him is... well... awkward, so I just froze him."
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Giving a glance at Gaserlake then back to the man, Asura nodded. "Your pawn in the upcoming war, I take it? From what I could see back in the Chronoverse, it seems that is the case. But why would you appear in front of Miss Hikaru as well?" Releasing her staff and letting it float in the air, Asura fell back on 'nothing,' crossing her legs and sitting upon the very air its self. "Make it fast, I have things to discuss as well, and you're holding such up."
"And why the hell would I care to hear about that idiot?" Hikaru questioned. "Not as if I care." She crossed her arms.
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"No. Not a pawn." he then smirked. "Why do you think I appeared in front of her?" He cleared his throat. "Anyway, you don't have to contemplate Gaserlake. It's more like the other way around. He does care for you, Hikaru. Don't take it the wrong way. He doesn't love you or anything like that. He knows how to control his emotions, just like any other Elite Aralang. He cares you enough to see to it that you're alive and out of harm's way."
"As for you, Asura," he said as he looked at Gaserlake with curiosity and picked up a speck of dust on Gaserlake's hand. He examined it and rubbed it away. "You're the embodiment of time, yes, but that doesn't mean much to Gaserlake." He turned back to the two. "This applies to you as well, Hikaru. You're the Sage Three. I understand how much that means to you, but to Gaserlake, well, it doesn't say much."
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"Enemies should not care for enemies. And what does it matter if it says anything to him? We're still important throughout existence. We're still the most powerful magic users to exist. Whether it matters to him, does not matter, because to everyone else it does matter which makes his opinion a little more than useless." Hikaru turned to Asura. "Asura, you were saying?"
But Asura merely held up her finger to her lips in a silencing motion, "What is it you want?" She looked at the man, observing him.
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"Well, Gaserlake has been proven to be a very useful asset. He has learned it the hard way, though. You get the easy way. You two have shown great potential. You, Hikaru, even showed me when she revived Gaserlake, and you, Asura, for breaking his amnesia."
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"I revived him because I wanted to." Hikaru spat, narrowing her eyes further as she glowered at him. "I owed him my life so I repaid a debt, as well as, yes, I have come to respect him, as far as enemies go, anyways. But potential? What I did is none of your business, you didn't tell me to revive him. Just as you didn't tell me to find the documents back on Aralia. I may have followed, but only because you pissed me off. I would have found such on my own, eventually. So I don't know just what your little game is. But I will be a part of no such thing."
Asura continued to nod at everything said, as if predicting it. "Miss Hikaru here, will be my successor in the case that I die. I have chosen her because I trust my power in her hands. Chaos has chosen Kai, Fate has chosen K2323, it is only fitting that the eldest of three will receive Time. And the way things are going between the embodiments? It's only a matter of time till it affects Time as well. When that happens, she will receive my power. And because she is Destruction's partner, she can stay neutral and not suffer the backlash of such. So whatever you have planned with that phrase, it has no bearing."
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"I watched both of you for quite a while. You wouldn't have made it to the documents without me. I pissed you off by just smirking at you. How interesting. You have certainly become a killing machine, Hikaru. As for you, Asura, you would help make an excellent team of mutual trust and respect, as well as helping each other survive, of course."
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"Wrong!" Hikaru snarled, "I would have found them without you. I had already decided to leave that one area and find another. I can read signs. I would have found it." Hikaru then shuddered at his next statement, though she attempted her best not to allow it to show. Shaking her head, Hikaru lowered her eyes. "No. No, I have not. I never wanted to be, and I'm NOT going to be!"
"How about you leave?" Asura suggested, "I have things to speak to them about, and you're doing yourself no good here."
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"If it weren't for me, Gaserlake wouldn't have cared for you. Right now, he would give his life for you, but if it weren't for me, he wouldn't care about you. Sometimes, you have to do what you don't want to do, Hikaru." He looked at Asura. "Alright then. I'll be going. Goodbye." He then walked behind the same shelf he came from and disappeared without a single trace.
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But as he turned to leave, Hikaru shouted back in response. "If that is indeed true, then thank you. You've given me no reason to care now, or respect him. If he was only following you, then that means I owe nothing, especially my respect. Things will go back to the way they once were! Enemies to the bitter end."
"Well he just lost." Asura mused.
"Indeed." Hikaru muttered, as of now, annoyed.
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Gaserlake was turned to normal. He was not aware of what just happened, so he was resumed thinking about explaining existence. "Pretty damn hard to explain, Asura," he said.
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Hikaru glanced curiously at Gaserlake, still pretty much annoyed. Did he not recall any of it? Obviously this person whoever it was, was manipulating behind the scenes. But if he was truthful and it was all a facade, even her being alive as well, an enforced act. Then why should she care? Hikaru shrugged ever so slightly, he could just continue on not knowing for all she cared. "Existence is what we are," Hikaru muttered, returning back to the current conversation at hand. "It's what's around us. If we didn't exist, we wouldn't be here. It'd be... Permanent death."
"Ah, but things cannot be created, or destroyed." Asura replied.
"Koty, he can destroy things..." Hikaru caught Asura's eyes. "Permanently."
"Can he?" Asura held her hand to the books behind her. "The ones in this shelf, even the Force of Destruction has no bearing on."
"That can't be..." Hikaru stammered, "What about creation? Obviously we exist, Creation had to have had a bearing."
"Which brings me to my next part," Asura grinned. "Again I ask. What does it truly mean to exist?"
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"To be bound to laws? Or be destined to doom?" Gaserlake came up with.
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"Yes and no," Asura replied. "You're thinking too shallow. You're thinking of material existence. You're thinking of yourself or as you see it."
"Well I know magic is existence!" Hikaru smirked at Gaserlake as she said that. "And nothing else can match it!"
"Yes, true and all, but for the purpose of explaining these books, also wrong." Asura held out her hand, calling her staff to her. She then used the tip of the staff to write in the air, drawing what looked like a cube in silver writing aglow. "This is existence." Asura then drew lines into the cube, every which way possible. "These are the multiple timelines. And this..." She then drew a smaller square inside of the bigger cube, but intersecting the lines. "Is what you know as the Dimensional Plane. This is material existence."
"But it isn't what you meant... Is it?" Hikaru asked.
"In a way it is. In a way all of your answers were correct." Asura dropped the staff but left the pictures. "Existence is the perception of reality. Reality is the material world around you, life. The same as your answers. To exist? It is to change reality. To be a force inside reality itself and interact with other forces, to bring about change. Existence its self is change. But on a small scale, as everyone is part of change, giving their small part. The ones in the shelf however..." Asura picked her staff back up, and drew a few dots inside the cube, but outside the square, off to the side. "This is being outside of existence or to be nonexistent. Basically the same thing. Bit this..." Asura then added dots under the cube, but then drew lines connecting those dots to the cube. "This is you. Tied to existence. Able to take your part in reality, doing your part to change it. YET, at the same time, being outside of it, not confined to it. Any questions yet?"
Hikaru shook her head, mostly lost for words.
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"Nope," Gaserlake said.
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Asura nodded. "Very well then." Though she wondered why there no questions, she didn't question it. "This group, I like to call Subgrounded. Bound to existence, through being born into it. But not forced to abide by it." She held out her hand designating the two."Breaking it even. Such as becoming the most powerful magic users. Or doing things only magic should be able to do.
Before Hikaru could open her mouth and point out how untrue she was in that second statement, Asura continued, interrupting her, "Subgrounded; An existence that does not exist, yet is within exstence. A contradiction to existence its self, wouldn't you say?"
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This time, questions were flying into his head. "Maybe because we're not part of existence? And how does one become subgrounded?" Gaserlake asked.
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"That's what I was thinking." Asura nodded in agreeance , then picked her staff back up and began to trace more markings into the air.
"But we were obviously born into existence, why?" Hikaru questioned, watching the markings that were being drawn. "You said we weren't meant to exist, what do you mean?"
Asura finished her markings, now where the square inside the cube was, there were four circles around it. One above, one below, and one off to each side. The square being the middle of all. When finished, Asura held up her hand and another book appeared. This one was without a cover and pages looked like they were about to just fall apart and rejoin the dust on the ground. Ignoring this, Asura opened to a page, and the binding somehow managed to stay together. "Long ago, before the embodiments themselves. As well as the dimensional plane, there was only one race. This race created another mortal race, and the two went onto create the first incarnation of embodiments. But existence was wiped out through war. Only one of each race was left. That being was the combined form of Creation and Destruction, the second who you know as Koty. Life was tried again and again, but the embodiments never agreed with one another and thus the life they created didn't as well, it was destroyed again and again."
Asura marked out the two circles to each side of the square. "These were the areas that life took place. Eventually they were gone, replaced by ruins. The other two, " She pointed to the top and bottom. "Are Heaven and..."
"Erebus." Hikaru answered. "But Erebus is now gone."
Asura nodded and marked out the bottom circle. "Which leaves Heaven and life being," Asura used her staff to point to the mid square, "Eventually created here. After that, Creation and Destruction split, and you know the rest."
"The Keepers of Erebus... " Hikaru paused, "Wait.. So Koty's not a God?"
Asura shook her head, "Not in the sense of all powerful, no. Neither is Creation. But only the embodiments know this, and only the ones that were here through it from the beginning. The original ones. Mainly, Time. But Time does not interfere, Time does not save life, nor does it destroy it. It stays behind, watching events unfold, and recording it all. Time was one of the only embodiments that didn't war back then."
"But what does this have to do with being Subgrounded?"
"Everything." Asura pointed above the cube, and drew more dots. "This is what you would be if you were above existence, where you would basically be an embodiment, higher than existence its self to where you could manipulate it. As each embodiment does with their own force. That would be the Surgrounded. But, both are still grounded to existence." Asura pointed back to the dots under the cube. "You're below it, You can't manipulate it, but you're free from its forces of being completely in it. Unlike The Grounded, "She pointed back to the square, designating it. Then leaned her hands upon her staff, planting the end of it to the ground. "It is my belief that the ones from the beginning, the race that was before Destruction and Creation, that they re-incarnated." Before Hikaru could interrupt, Asura went on. "No, not Phoenix re-incarnation, but the true re-incarnation. To come back in another spiritual form. Even history doesn't show us completely what happened to that race or where they come from. So the idea is plausible."
"But again, You said we weren't supposed to exist." Hikaru argued.
"In this existence." Asura replied. "In the material existence you know, the reality around you."
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"So, if we aren't supposed to exist, how do we exist in the first place?" Gaserlake asked.
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"I don't know." Asura simply stated, with a skeptic look from Hikaru. "That right there is the contradiction. I do believe there is another class that outclasses both." Asura traced her staff in to the air outside the cube all together, off to the side of it. "This would be a class not grounded to existence at all. Able to control its forces, yet be effected by none. This would be known as Ingrounded, not bound to existence at all, able to bend, twist, and manipulate it to its will, and not be affected its self. If anyone would be Ingrounded, I believe it would be the one that created Existence in a whole. No, not Creation and Destruction. And not even the race that created the embodiments. But something farther out there, a 'true God,' if you will."
"And it's that god that brought us, The subgrounded into existence?" Hikaru questioned.
Asura shook her head, "No. But I think it's a part of it. As I said, it's a contradiction. A contradiction to existence its self. But the thing about contradictions, they attract more contradictions. Whatever that first contradiction in existence was, brought with it another contradiction. And with that contradiction, it brought yet another, each one being the gate way for even more contradictions. Your existence, for example. A contradiction. Miss Hikaru's children's existence, a contradiction that led from the first contradiction of her existence. Subgrounded seem to attract more subgrounded, as they play as more contradictions. Find that first contradiction in existence, and you would find out why you exist."
"So then we shouldn't exist... because contradictions shouldn't exist?"
"There's nothing wrong with contradictions." Asura went on, "Without contradictions, we wouldn't have tautologies, and existence would never be certain. But too many contradictions, and it starts to overflow, outnumbering that which fix them, the tautologies. Existence is supposed to have an equal amount of both contradiction and tautology, it is supposed to be contingent. But when contradiction outweighs tautology, things become irrational. It is that irrationality that brings me back to the start of this." Asura swiped her staff across the markings, and they faded. "If you kills Miss Hikaru, and if Miss Hikaru kills you. I cannot say what happens. Obviously because you're in existence, you die. But that is material existence, the Dimensional Plane. Even then, you come back. Why? Irrationality. Events, caused by the chain of contradictions, causing another contradiction to correct it. Because your existence was a contradiction, dying was a tautology, but because of irrationality, another contradiction happens. The event of being brought back."
"But what about permanent death?"
"I'm getting there. Because of irrationality, I cannot say if you would live or die. Things being unable to be destroyed or created, existence as well, is a tautology. But your existence is a contradiction. And so would permanent death be as well, because it's obviously destroying something. To have those two contradictions clash, I believe the tautology would be to save, and the contradiction would be to destroy. Irrationality would happen, and you would be neither destroyed or saved, but outside of it all together. Neither alive or dead. A paradox."
"...So we're immortal? True immortality?"
"You could call it that. Existence would certainly have no bounds on you then. And perhaps you may find out what exactly out there is Ingrounded, you would be on the same class as them. But I don't know what form you would be in. Mere dust, essence of the spirit? Or if through will power, your existent-bound form? Not something I would try even if it is immortality. All true immortality has a price. And I think, seeing as the contradiction of your existence is effecting existence. The price to your 'deaths,' would be a severe change in material existence. You can't kill the roots of a tree, without destroying it. And the subgrounded are the roots of existence. Which is why existence is trying to keep you alive."
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Gaserlake believed it. He wasn't surprised. He knew that something was keeping him alive. How else did he survive for over fifteen billion years? Now that Asura explained, it made a whole lot more sense. "So, we would be alive, no matter what?" A thought struck him. "So, if Hikaru's children are subgrounded, then, wouldn't that mean my brother is also subgrounded?" he was desperate to know.
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"Yes, because existence would make sure of it. Because existence needs you." Asura tapped her staff to the ground and a second book appeared near him. "You may check."
"Wait." Hikaru held up her hand, signaling for them to pause. "If existence makes sure of it, does that mean everything that has happened to keep us alive, is not the person that did its choice, but them being manipulated by existence?" She thought for a moment, she had revived him because she wanted to, right? Or was the thought given to her...
"No." Asura replied. "It may seem that way, but it is only the act of being alive that existence causes. Through what means? That's up to unforeseen occurrences. Take you reviving the oaf here. Had you not, existence would have seen to it for it to happen another way. Be it in the future, or at that moment. But you still had your choice. Existence didn't force you. If it DID need to force a person to stay alive, it would bring them back or prevent them from dying, out of nowhere. That is in the extreme case. It would not be by another's hand, though."
Hikaru shot Asura a look when Asura had explained just the exact situation as to why Hikaru was asking that question. The look basically said 'shut up please.'
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Gaserlake looked through the brown book. Shock hit his face and it can be clearly seen. "It's also empty," he said. "Is it inherited?"
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"I don't know." Asura replied. She then tapped her staff again, and the book disappeared out of his hands and appeared on the shelf behind her. "One contradiction attracts another. Maybe it is. Or maybe it's a contradiction of a contradiction to where some are not. The only way to find out would be to look at the parents of the current subgrounded, or distant relatives." She tapped her staff, and two books appeared by Hikaru, one appeared near Gaserlake. "Well... That's strange. You seem to only have one parent, or something's up."
Hikaru ignored the odd turn of events and looked through the two that appeared near her. The books of her parents. "Both of my parents have wording." She muttered, "My grandfather is Chaos, could that be it?"
"He would be Surgrounded."
"What of my other grandfather? Or grandmother?"
"Perhaps," Asura tapped the staff again, and two more books appeared near Hikaru. "Are they?"
Picking the books up automatically, this time, Hikaru skimmed through them. "Both have text. ...Wait..." Hikaru took the one of her grandfather on her mothers side, her former challenger from the Plex Tournament, Mokai. She flipped through the book rather fastly. "He's from this time?! What? It says here he..." Hikaru paused and slammed the book. "The Genesis King, that's who has to be subgrounded. If he wasn't, then it's not inheritable in every circumstance."
Asura made a face, "I don't have his book. Because his timeline was split into the three of you."
"And you can't read us..." Hikaru irritably dropped the book. "Then I or my brothers are not the example to find the origin."
-
Gaserlake looked through the book. "This is my mother, and this has text in it, so I guess she's normal. So, for my father... he must be subgrounded. But... wouldn't you still have his book, albeit a blank one?"
-
In response, Asura tapped her staff to the ground and all of a sudden the group of three were in another part of the Records. This time in the race of Aralang, section. "Check if you want," Asura replied, then added, "just don't touch any other books," just as Hikaru was glancing to what she thought had Special Forces written on the cover.
-
The books were ordered alphabetically and by date of birth. It would show date of birth first, then it goes into alphabetical order. Gaserlake walked down to the date where his father was born. He then traced his fingers on the books as he went down the alphabetical order for his father's name. He stopped. His finger was on a book, which was supposed to be right next to his father's, but the book wasn't there. "The hell?" he wondered. He put his hand down in great wonder. "What the hell? Why isn't it there?"
-
"So it's not there?" Asura asked, throwing up her hand to blindly catch a book that Hikaru had just then been trying to levitate to herself. "Well there goes finding the origin of those Subgrounded." Asura brought the book down to glance at the title. It was as she guessed, a book of one of the Special Forces. "Miss Hikaru, really?" Asura questioned, before making the book go back to its place.
"Can't blame me for trying," Hikaru muttered back.
-
Gaserlake shook his head when he saw what the book was. "You're that damn desperate to read on the SF? Heh. Of course. They've treated you like hell. Can't blame you for trying to find everything about them."
He sighed. "It's not there. But... it's strange, really. Ever since my parents died... I've been met by this damn guy. Hikaru would know who I'm talking about, the guy who dresses formally and carries a briefcase with him all the damn time. And now, his book is missing."
-
"As if I care," Hikaru cynically replied, "To defeat your enemy, know your enemy. That's all." Her and Asura then looked at one another, and then back at him. "You mean the idiot that was just here?" Hikaru asked, amused.
"Quote the rude one too," Asura added.
-
Gaserlake didn't understand. What do they mean? Surely, he wasn't here. He didn't see him, at least. "Wait, he was here? The hell? When?" Gaserlake asked.
-
Hikaru smriked, "I have no idea." She then glanced to Asura, who looked a bit lost.
"You don't rememb-" Asura paused, then finally realized Hikaru's hint. "Right, me neither. What were we talking about again?"
-
"You better fucking tell me!" Gaserlake yelled as he pointed at Hikaru and Asura back and forth. "He's probably the goddamn reason I'm subgrounded in the first goddamn fucking place! Not that I don't want to be subgrounded, but I have reason to believe that he's the one that keeps me alive all the fucking time!"
-
"And I should care why? Not exactly my problem." Hikaru looked to Asura, "Are we done now? I kind of have a match to get back to."
"Oh right the match!" Asura jumped, as she remembered. "Well I do think that's all I had to say." She nodded, "Yes, we're basically done."
-
"AAAAAAGH!" he screamed. He punched the shelf closest to him. Normally, it would be flying for miles, literally, but time has bolted them to the floor. This just irritated him more and more as the shelf did nothing. However, the shockwaves were strong and were felt on the ground, which shook. The books were also violently shaking. He then laughed manic as he still punched, which caused the punches to be weaker, but still very strong. "Why? Cuz I'll kill you. That's why," he said as he continued to laugh manic. He went to the shelf opposite of him and punched it, again failing but having the same effect.
-
Hikaru just looked skeptic. Well apparently he's lost it. Quite literally. Did she dare drag it further? Hell yes! "Riiiiight, because you can really kill me," Hikaru taunted, "I mean not that Asura just said that was impossible and all. But anyways. I would love to say what I know and everything, however, there's a little something keeping me from doing so." Hikaru paused, "Oh, now what could that possibly be? Oh right! You see, there's this little situation I'm in, being your damn prisoner and all. That along with these quite ugly fashion statements, are pretty convincing enough to have me not say a word." She laughed.
Asura stood by, just watching. He couldn't damage the shelves or the books, so it wasn't her concern.
-
He stopped punching the shelves. Tears began to form in his eyes. "You know what? Fine! Keep your fucking thing a secret! Let's just go."
-
Hikaru didn't move, instead she just looked at him. She wanted to know something first. This was the same person she had been dealing with, yet then why... Something just didn't add up. "If you wanted to know so badly, then why didn't you just read my mind?" Hikaru asked, puzzled. "It's not like I can shield it."
-
Gaserlake wiped away his tears. "I have agreed to you that I wouldn't read your mind."
-
"Yet you still won't let go of that damn contract?! " Hikaru sighed. She knew when her methods weren't working, and this was one of them. Why wouldn't he just rip it already?! She had information he wanted, and he obviously wanted it bad. Yet he STILL wouldn't free her? In normal circumstances she would think he'd give up the contract before resorting to read her mind, if what he said was true, anyways. In reality, she would think her mind would have been read long before contract or her saying it willingly. Yet, he was doing neither, one or the other. He was about as damn stubborn and she was, and Hikaru was becoming greatly annoyed because of it. "Whatever then." Hikaru snapped her fingers, and a memory-hologram of what had happened the whole time the Man had been there, played back, including before he got there and when he left. "
Asura stood by and just watched, waiting for the arguments to settle.
-
When he finished watching it, he laughed. "Looks like he loves you two. He wants to have some fun with you. Of course, he's going to whether you like it or not. He won't give you a choice. He'll give you a choice, but it has consequences. Unforeseen consequences."
-
"Hmph, he can try." Hikaru snapped back, "But my choices are my own. All of them. Every last one." She looked away as she sad that last part. " And they will stay that way. He tries anything? I will do the exact opposite of everything that seems to be too easy or coincidental. And if I can't, I will do nothing. What the hell is wrong with you? Doesn't it bother you at all that you've been manipulated? Free will forcefully messed with?"
-
"How would you know if doing the opposite or doing nothing is what he wants you to do, huh?" Gaserlake smiled. "He's damn hard to catch. You don't know if what you're doing right now is what he's planning. He could be planning the whole damn thing. I... I don't know if I want to be manipulated. It might have saved my life, but sometimes I feel like I want to die, but no, HE HAS TO HAVE IT HIS WAY!"
-
Hikaru raised an eyebrow and looked at him skeptically, "Paranoid much?" Hikaru rolled her eyes. "Whether it's what he wants or not, it does not matter. I'm not going to worry about it, because even if it's influenced, it is still my own choice. Because it is what I WANT to do. For example, I wanted to start a war to kick your ass, for what you bastards are doing in disgrace to magic. I WANTED to piss you off in the worst possible way that I could manage. And I wanted to bring you back. These were all my choices. Be them good, or bad. They were still what I chose because I wanted to. And if some being wants to claim influence over such? Let him, he lies. Because Free will is still there, choice is still in the hands of the person, even if they're being manipulated."
"She's right!" Asura piped up. "And there's no embodiment of Free Will, because free will is the right every being with sentience has. Sentience basically is free will. Without it, existence would do... well nothing! Life would not live, because everyone would be the same."
"And no one would stand against it. Because no one would know what the choice to say no is." Hikaru added.
-
"Every action has its consequences," Gaserlake calmly said. "He lays down the consequences. You have limited choices. He gives you free will, but he doesn't give you much choice. There's a reason why he chose you two. Like I said, you have great potential. You stand out among the rest. Same with you, Asura, even though I haven't met anyone like you, so there is no actual comparison, but he doesn't choose just anybody. You need a good damn reason for him to choose you. A good benefit of it is that you have a less chance of dying."
-
Hikaru glowered, narrowing her eyes, "Potential can go to hell. But there's the answer right there, If consequences are the result for limited choices. Then walk straight into the consequences. IIf there's consequences of something, then that usually means it's supposed to be off limits. I would rather suffer whatever consequences there may be, then go with someones game. Especially not being able to die. Nothing to lose to go against." Hikaru shrugged.
-
"The consequences IS his game. He makes things happen. You just cause it to happen. He's the effect. He makes things happen accordingly to your action."
-
"Then I will do nothing." Hikaru snapped. "Can't manipulate that. Now are we done?"
-
"Fine, do nothing. He'll just add a consequence to it. He doesn't manipulate, only influence. Alright, fine. Let's go."
-
"So be it then, at least I wasn't a pawn. Like you." Hikaru shot back. She then turned to Asura, "Wait, before we go. The reason you even brought me here. My kids, you can't edit their Timeline, but could they edit their own?"
Asura tilted her a head a bit, thinking. "Well, yes, because everyone is the master of themselves."
"Good," Hikaru grinned, "Then I ask one favor. I need to look through the spell books here, to find the certain spells to guide them. There must be an infinite number of spell books and other writeups on magic. There has to be something that would be of use."
"Well..." Asura leaned on her staff, thinking deeply. "You're going to be my successor anyways...." She perked her head up and grinned, "Go right ahead!"
"Thank you."
"No problem! Good luck." Asura tapped her staff and Hikaru disappeared to the magic section of the Records. "So," Asura glanced to Gaserlake, when they were alone. "Any ideas who the pest is?"
-
"Well, he showed up after my parents died, and you're missing the book of my father, so I'm thinking that he's my father. But... he doesn't look like him. He doesn't act like him. He's like a completely different person. Other than that, I don't know. Anyway, you've got to watch out for Hikaru. She's bloody damn ignorant. He WOULD make her a pawn whether she likes it or not. Same with you. You two would just have to learn to deal with it. I've dealt with him for thousands of years."
-
"So you think he became Ingrounded, then?" Asura asked, then added, "And in case you haven't noticed. Miss Hikaru values freedom and free will over any other attribute in existence. She doesn't like to be controlled. And I really can't blame her. Anyways, he can try to influence Time, he will find it very hard to do."
-
"Yeah. Probably became ingrounded. But the question would be, why? Why would he do this to us? If he's my father, why is he doing this to me? Hell, it wouldn't matter if he's my father or not."
-
"I would believe it has to do with Irrationality." Asura replied. "Because Subgrounded become Ingrounded, through Irrationality, the contradictions outweighing the tautology. I would say Irrationality plays an even bigger part, as its actions without reason. Maybe, the Ingrounded develop the power of Irrationality its self, to use it to cause things in existence to be Irrational at their will. Which would make, them, themselves, Irrational as well."
-
"So, his mind is irrational, too? Well, that must explain a lot of things. A lot of weird shit has come around ever since he showed up."
-
"It's only speculation." Asura leaned upon her staff as she continued to wait for Hikaru. Reading every spell book in time? That would take an eternity. But she knew Hikaru had her ways, hopefully. "Anyways, he won't be able to get his hands on Miss Hikaru," Asura yawned a bit, "There's another class I didn't say. Other than Surgrounded, Subgrounded, and Ingrounded. And because she is Subgrounded, once she becomes my successor. I believe she will be that other class. Subgrounded, with the newfound powers of Surgounding. What that one race once was, Dualgrounded."
-
Gaserlake smiled. "Oh, he already has. It's just not apparent, yet. You're already his pawn. If you see him, it's too late."
-
"Maybe for you," Hikaru appeared behind Gaserlake, undetected till she had spoken. Her magic signature seemed to strangely be gone, as if it wasn't there at all. Yet, she didn't appear to be using a spell to mask it. "But I don't intend to be a pawn, especially by something or someone I never would have came across in the first place if not for the fact of being forced to be near YOU!" Hikaru accused as she walked back towards Asura who looked a bit surprised.
"You read all the books that fast?"
"Time is unlocked now, which means sages can cast time spells as well. I sped up the time it took to read a book, to a split second."
"Oh right. Good thinking," Asura mused.
"All of the magic of history..." Hikaru held her hand out, staring at her palm, then quickly clenched her fist. As she did, her magic signature sky rocketed to a million-fold. Slackening her grip, and letting her hand then drop to her side, her magi signature then dropped as well, back to nothing. As if she was mortal, but really wasn't.
-
Of course, this did surprise Gaserlake, but he didn't show it. He was too used to surprises. He shrugged. "Maybe he wanted you to meet me in the fist place." He shook his head and smiled as her magic signature skyrocketed. "You would still be your pawn, Hikaru. Believe it or not. You don't believe it, you'll just be damn ignorant. You don't intend to be, but doesn't mean you won't. He chose you, and it's going to stay that way for a long time, if not forever."
-
"That's where you're wrong." Hikaru glowered at him. "Had you just released me right away, none of this would have ever happened. So once again, it's YOUR fault! Release me now?!"
-
"This wouldn't have happened, no," Gaserlake said. He gave her a skeptical look. "Why should I release you?"
-
"Because you said you didn't plan on there being conditions. Then if you didn't plan on them, why enforce them??!" Hikaru lowered her eyes to the ground, staring intently at the black velvet carpet, not allowing her gaze to waiver, in a toneless voice, she continued, "I'm missing everything... Everything I was involved in. The events that are coming together... All of it..." Hikaru shook her head, but continued to stare at the ground. "I don't even know who's won or lost in the tournament. Or who's still alive out of the original participants. And as Asura said, the embodiments are having a war, my brothers already choosing sides... " Hikaru fell back against the nearest book shelf, leaning on it. "In a hundred years? Everything will have changed and become unrecognizable. And I'll still be stuck... In two hundred? I'll be lost in what's happened...." She held her head up with her hand.
"If Existence lives that long." Asura added, seeming awfully cheery, despite the fact she was proclaiming predicted doom from Plex.
-
"Because I wanted to train you. I really wanted to. Potential is another reason. The same damn reason this guy came for you. Plus, as I told you, I go with the damn flow. If you're missing events, then tell me, and I'll probably let you see them."
-
"I'm not going to!" Hikaru shouted back. "I will NEVER learn technology. I despise it. I'd destroy it in a heartbeat the first chance I get! When will you understand that?! It's pointless to keep enforcing it, because it's NEVER going to happen!"
"You should listen to her," Asura added in, looking at her nails as she was quite bored by that time. "Most magic users would rather die then learn what they think disgraces magic. Look at history for example."
Hikaru continued glaring, "And ask you? What? So you can throw the added on price of having to take you with every time? Hell no! I'm eldest of the Sage Three. I don't ask for anything!"
-
"As far as I know, the only damn reason why technology is a disgrace is magic is because of the anti-magic fields! Other than that, I see it as a bloody misconception!" He calmed down. "Alright, fine. You don't have to take me everywhere you go. I understand that."
-
"If you'll go that far, then just release me!" Hikaru demanded, practically losing it by now."Why won't you release me? Why?!" The only support which kept Hikaru up was the bookcase behind her. If not for that, she'd have been on her knees by now. But even despite the support, Hikaru slowly slid down the bookcase till she was sitting on the floor, her head still in her hands. "I can't take this anymore!" She screamed. I'm not just missing events, I'm missing my life, two hundred years of it! And I just- ... I don't know what to do about it anymore..."
-
Gaserlake showed no sympathy. "Remember the deal we had, Hikaru? If you beat me in a tech-versus-magic match, the contract will be destroyed and you'll be free. If I or Leserlake fail to destroy the contract, then you can kill me. Let my brother alone, though. He's rather inexperienced compared to me. He still has to see reality a bit more, despite his age and all."
-
Hikaru looked off to the side, her voice toneless as she muttered, "The deal's off... I don't trust you... ...At all."
Asura said nothing as she stood by. Holding out one hand, she seemed to be looking at her nails in a rather bored looking stance and expression.
-
"What? Why don't you trust me?"
-
"You're the enemy... ...Never trust the enemy." Hikaru continued to glower at the floor as she stood herself up slowly, recovering from the shortened mental breakdown from just a few minutes before. "For a moment I forgot that. I actually fooled myself into believing different... that maybe things this time were different..." She scoffed, then looked to Asura. "Asura, the tournament?"
"Oh right!" Asura jumped slightly, and planted her staff to the ground. "Whenever, you're ready."
-
"I don't see you as the enemy, Hikaru," Gaserlake replied. "But sure, let's go."
-
"Right," Hikaru said, her every word, dripping with sarcasm, "Excuse me if I find that hard to believe. Seeing as if it was true, I should have been released by now. That along with this damn reminder on my left wrist, yeah, nice try. Not believing a damn word you say."
Asura stood by, continuing to wait. Hikaru said to go, but then she continued talking? Asura was starting to grow impatient.
-
"Let's just go," Gaserlake said impatiently.
-
"No argument?" Hikaru looked skeptic. "That just means I'm right. You are tricking me. Trying to lull me into a false sense of security or something? But for what...?" Hikaru stood silent for a moment, thinking the situation over. Finally she shook her head. "I'll figure it out later. Asura?"
Asura nodded and tapped her staff to the ground, teleporting the trio back to Hell.